January 30, 2019

A Second Chinese National Working on Project Titan has been Arrested by the FBI for Stealing Company Secrets

In July 2018 Patently Apple posted a report titled "Ex-Apple Employee Arrested for Stealing Project Titan Secrets." Whether the ex-employee was stealing secrets for a Chinese startup or for the Chinese Government is interesting at a time when the U.S. has been pushing the issue of China stealing U.S. IP during trade talks with China. Now a second Chinese national working at Apple has been arrested for stealing Project Titan trade secrets.

Earlier this month Patently Apple posted a report wherein National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow said that one the key points in the US-Trade talks is about China's ongoing IP theft. "That may be a part of the Apple issue. I don't want to surmise too much here, but Apple technology may have been picked off by China and now China is becoming very competitive with Apple."

This month has been filled with reports of China stealing US IP (01, 02, 03 & the most recent #04) along with a Huawei arrested for spying in Poland.

Late yesterday California's NBC investigative team reported that "For the second time in six months, the FBI is accusing a Chinese national working for Apple of attempting to steal trade secrets related to the company’s secret autonomous vehicle program.

Apple began investigating Jizhong Chen when another employee reported seeing the engineer taking photographs in a sensitive work space, according to a federal criminal complaint unsealed this week.

Chen, according to the complaint, allowed Apple Global Security employees to search his personal computer, where they found thousands of files containing Apple’s intellectual property, including manuals, schematics, and diagrams. Security personnel also found on the computer about a hundred photographs taken inside an Apple building.

Apple learned Chen recently applied for a job at a China-based autonomous vehicle company that is a direct competitor of Apple’s project, according to the complaint. A photo found on Chen’s computer, which Apple provided to the FBI, showed an assembly drawing of an Apple-designed wiring harness for an autonomous vehicle.

Chen was arrested just one day before he was scheduled to fly to China, according to the complaint.

Apple released a statement that read: "Apple takes confidentiality and the protection of our IP very seriously. We are working with authorities on this matter and are referring all questions to the FBI." Source.

If anyone ever doubted Apple's Project Titan in the past, the evidence of two former employees stealing high technology secrets from the project should prove just how advanced the project is at the current moment.

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